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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29262816">Tales From the Junk Drawer</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLastKnownSurvivor/pseuds/TheLastKnownSurvivor'>TheLastKnownSurvivor</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tales From the Junk Drawer [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Red White &amp; Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Banter, Canon Compliant, Drabble, Established Relationship, Humor, M/M, One Shot, One Shot Collection, Perfume, Post-Canon, RWRB Romance Week, but Alex also has some Introspection™ about his sexuality, mentions of June, mentions of moving in together, this is mostly humor and sort of fluff</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 13:14:34</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,426</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29262816</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLastKnownSurvivor/pseuds/TheLastKnownSurvivor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“Is this reminiscent of the formative American coming-of-age experience you mentioned at that first New Year's?”<br/>“Of teenagers dry humping to 'Get Low'?”<br/>“Must you put it so crassly?”<br/>“Okay, but picture this-”<br/>“I'd really rather not.”<br/>-<br/>Henry and Alex are cleaning out Alex’s junk drawer before he moves in with Henry in NYC. While cleaning out the junk drawer, Henry finds a <s>perfume</s> cologne bottle of interest.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alex Claremont-Diaz/Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tales From the Junk Drawer [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2214936</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>104</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>RWRB Romance Week</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Tales From the Junk Drawer</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For Day 1: perfume of <a href="https://rwrb-fests.tumblr.com/post/641937051528445952/rwrb-romance-week-its-the-season-of-love-and"> RWRB Romance Week</a>. Thanks for hosting this fest <a href="https://rwrb-fests.tumblr.com/">@rwrb-fests</a> on Tumblr!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Alex has, in the last four years, acquired a lot of shit. He thought it was bad back home in Texas before his family moved to the White House, but apparently having more space only exacerbates the issue. His initial survey of the situation quickly revealed the severity of the problem. He has time before he has to start packing for New York, but not much. So he's enlisted Henry's help to Marie Kondo the shit out of his room, for moral support reasons.</p><p>He would have asked June, but she's neck-deep in her own preparations for leaving the White House. Which confirmed Alex's long time suspicions that she was mostly hanging around to ensure he stayed out of trouble. No offense to June, but he's not exactly sure that it worked given that he managed to cause an international incident right before the 2020 election. Still, they won re-election, so it's a bit of a moot point. And he got Henry out of the whole thing.</p><p>Henry agreed to help out far more readily than Alex expected. Of course, they haven't spent much time together recently, but Alex knows that de-cluttering isn't exactly sexy. Even so, Henry seems quite invested in seeing that Alex “actually gets rid of stuff”, which he's honestly a little offended by. He hasn't done anything to suggest he'd be bad at that.</p><p>It's definitely unrelated to the stacks of school work shoved into the corner that Alex swears he'll use again. Henry scoffs, and Alex shuts him up with a glare. He's sure it will come in handy to reference later on. Also, so what if he's reluctant to throw out his painstakingly color-coded notes? Not that he'd ever let anyone else see them.</p><p>Just to get Henry's skeptical face out of his sight, Alex makes him carry various boxes he's already sorted through. The order also may or may not be rooted in his desire to see Henry's biceps flex as he works.</p><p>He assigns Henry to the junk drawer next and feels maybe a little guilty about it.</p><p>Alex feels decidedly less bad after Henry holds up several items, raising an eyebrow. Still, the desire never to touch the junk drawer wins out, so Alex let's the insufferable bastard continue digging anyway.</p><p>Meanwhile, Alex settles into that corner with all the papers and hefts the top part of a stack into his lap, getting to work. He sorts the contents into three categories: keep, recycle, shred. He refuses to acknowledge the fourth pile of indecision. Or that Alex keeps on getting distracted by reading his old essays, in between talking with Henry and giving him second opinions about what to throw away. (First opinion? It is <em>his</em> stuff, after all.)</p><p>Alex gets distracted hate-reading an essay that gave him a particularly hard time back during junior year. Did he finish it? Yes. Did he suffer during the process? Immensely. And largely self-inflicted because he's a perfectionist and would rather simply suffer than get a bad grade.</p><p>He still has a grudge against the essay.</p><p>Out of the corner of his eye, Alex sees Henry examine something small that he found in the drawer. There's the sound of a spritz, followed by a “Good lord, that's potent.”  Alex looks up to see Henry trying to clear the air by waving his hand.</p><p>The smell doesn't hit Alex immediately, but when it does, he's immediately transported back to shopping at an Abercrombie &amp; Fitch store in middle school: the pounding music, the dim interior of the store, the ridiculously hot greeters and staff people, and the black and white ads.</p><p>“Jesus, H, why did you spray so much?” says Alex, setting down the papers in his lap to go to Henry.</p><p>“It simply came out,” Henry says helplessly. “Furthermore, Alex, why do you have a bottle of cologne with a naked bloke on it?”</p><p>Alex coughs, “Well, I, uh-” then realizes this is his boyfriend and he has no reason to be embarrassed, but still pivots regardless, “Wait- did y'all not have Abercrombie &amp; Fitch in England?”</p><p>“Oh, is that what this is from?”</p><p>“Yeah, I mean it's not even really mine” - Henry raises an eyebrow - “okay, fine, I mean, yes, technically, but it was originally one of June's ex-boyfriend's. He left it around from when they were dating, then she gave it to me because she didn't know what to do with it. I guess it came with me in the move to the White House.”</p><p>“Hmm,” Henry examines the bottle again, turning it over in his hands. “Is this what you're looking for in a partner?”</p><p>Alex laughs, “What? No! Of course not, it's just a dumb advertising ploy. I don't even-”</p><p>But before anything else can leave his mouth, something slots into place in a dark, back corner of his mind, and the rest of the words die on his lips. Suddenly several memories surface. Most including more shirtless models. And that guy with the cute smile with just enough stubble who worked at the Barton Creek one. And all the times Alex tried his best not to stare a weird amount at any of the staff or the billboard-sized ads plastered by the storefronts.</p><p>God, how did Alex ever think he was straight, again?</p><p>He keeps on thinking that he's done having these revelations about his sexuality, but somehow they just keep coming. He's beginning to wonder if some of his quirks and childhood memories might just be a result of his sexuality.</p><p>“Alex?” Henry's voice startles him out of his thoughts.</p><p>“Hmm?”</p><p>He presses on, “What were you saying about an advertising ploy?”</p><p>“Right, yeah, advertising ploy. Actually, that means you don't know of this formative middle school memory that all Americans our age have.”</p><p>“Is this reminiscent of the formative American coming-of-age experience you mentioned at that first New Year's?”</p><p>“Of teenagers dry humping to 'Get Low'?”</p><p>“Must you put it so crassly?”</p><p>“Okay, but picture this-”</p><p>“I'd really rather not.”</p><p>“Fine,” Alex rolls his eyes. “It's like those Calvin Klein ads, except maybe a few more clothes if you're lucky and even more pervasive in the brand image. Dark. Brooding. Sultry. Smoldering. That type of stuff. And the branding is everywhere. Like, the cologne there. Or the bags. They had the exact same image on them.”</p><p>Henry glances down at the bottle, “How could anyone carry one out of a shop?”</p><p>Alex shrugs, “It was pretty normal back then. Cool, too.”</p><p>“Once again, the cultural differences speak volumes.”</p><p>Alex hums in agreement, then laces his fingers together behind his head, “Yeah, well, if not for the racism issues and the nasty comments from the CEO, I'd totally have modeled for them. I dunno, there's something just kind of nostalgic about it. And I could've really added something to it all with all of my charm. Maybe someone should even hire some fanfiction writers to do the script for the shoot.”</p><p>“Well, that certainly would be in line with all of the barely concealed homoerotic subtext in their ads and catalogues,” Henry remarks.</p><p>Alex's eyebrows shoot up in question. “<em>Homoerotic subtext?</em> I thought you said y'all didn't have Abercrombies in England!”</p><p>“Well, the brand wasn't too established in England, but yes, famously so about the homoerotic subtext. It came up in loads of gay magazines and circles on the internet. I think someone even shot a parody ad. You really didn't know?”</p><p>“I- no?” he says helplessly.</p><p>But, as Alex thinks about it, he can see what Henry means. The shirtless greeters probably is sufficient evidence on its own.</p><p>Maybe it was a slightly less isolated incident with his sexuality than he thought.</p><p>“So what do you want to do with this?” Henry asks, nodding towards the bottle.</p><p>“Honestly? I have no idea. Probably just put it back in the junk drawer.”</p><p>Henry grins at him, “Not interested in staring at it any longer?”</p><p>“Shut up.”</p><p>Alex shoves past him, though he’s exaggerating his annoyance simply for the drama. He nods out the door, “You want lunch? I think we’ve done enough for now- I’m starving. We can keep working after we eat.”</p><p>“Gladly.”</p><p>And with that, Henry follows Alex out the door. They walk side-by-side, shoulders touching, and they don’t have to care if anyone’s watching. Alex glances down, then takes Henry’s hand in his, squeezing firmly. Henry looks a little taken aback, but the expression fades quickly into a smile, and he squeezes Alex’s hand in return.</p><p>It’s exactly where Alex wants to be.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Update: Although I still will be writing more to this story, I've since decided to split it up into multiple fics in a series instead of making this fic multi-chapter. There will be more stories about stuff from Alex's junk drawer (and perhaps other things he and Henry find while sorting through his stuff) but each will be fairly stand-alone.</p><p>As mentioned before, this first one shot is for<a href="https://rwrb-fests.tumblr.com/post/641937051528445952/rwrb-romance-week-its-the-season-of-love-and"> RWRB Romance Week</a>.</p><p>Find me on <a href="https://xthelastknownsurvivorx.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a>, and don’t hesitate to scream about rwrb with me.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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